Championship Play-Off Final, West Ham United vs Blackpool: Open Thread

The richest game in football kicks off today with West Ham United against Blackpool, live from Wembley. The winner will play in the Premier League next season. The loser will remain in the nPower Championship.

Here’s a preview of the match, which — for viewers in the United States — will be shown live on FOX Soccer at 10am ET.

About Christopher Harris

Founder and publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris is the managing editor of the site. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who has lived in Florida since 1984, has supported Swansea City since 1979. He's also an expert on soccer in South Florida, and got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.
Harris launched EPL Talk in 2005, which was rebranded as World Soccer Talk in 2013.
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40 Responses to Championship Play-Off Final, West Ham United vs Blackpool: Open Thread

Ince is a gifted player but his selfishness and wanting to dribble past everyone near him is why Liverpool let him go and we just saw how he cost Blackpool dearly for West Ham’s goal as he lost the ball trying to go past 3 defenders and West Ham went straight to the other end and scored.

Blackpool are not out of it but they will need to take their chances when they come.

Blackpool needs to regain their composure and refocus their efforts in the second half at playing the time of free-flowing passing game they were doing in the first half. If they play their brand of football they do best, they’ll create more chances.

Sorry to see Blackpool staying down. If they can keep Ollie and the current squad mostly intact(BIG if with their tightwad ownership) they should be a favorite for one of the automatic places next year.

They really aren’t tight… they are just a small seaside town that they forgot the close down. They have a small stadium, a limited fan base (couldn’t even sell out their allocation for the FINAL). What they are is a small team that plays well above their heads. They should have won today, they could have won today. But West Ham are a PL team that under performs.. But they do have quality for that level. and that won out. And sad thing is next year will be twice as difficult for them. You get teams like Reading that catch lighting in a bottle, teams like Southampton that gel, and you get three PL squads that come down and don’t like losing. Look at Leeds. That is a squad that could have come up for years… But they always fall short. Its a great league, with great play. but what separates it from the PL is any team can win a match.